2007 New Haven Underground Film Festival: Official Lineup

By Mike Everleth ⋅ May 10, 2007

I am so behind in posts, it’s almost embarrassing. The fourth annual New Haven Underground Film Festival is this weekend, Saturday May 12 at 5:30 p.m., and I’m getting the lineup up in under the wire even though they’ve had it up for weeks. My apologies. But if you live in Connecticut — Go.

This year the festival is playing on two different screens at the same time (in two different theaters) at the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center in Meriden. Each screen will play a mixture of features and shorts, but mostly shorts. I’m not sure how much you can plan to shuttle between theaters or, if you pick one, you’re stuck in that one all night. But times of each film are at the NHUFF site. However, below I’m just going to list the films on each screen sans times.

I also want to make a special mention that at 11:30 in Theater One will be screening a new music video by Underground Film Journal friend, Jay Hollinsworth. Jay made the cool feature Broken, which I reviewed here. At NHUFF, he’s screening his video for “Quicksand Under Carpet” for the band New Radiant Storm King. I haven’t seen the new work yet, but I want to. So, go see it for me. Jay’s a great guy and the video sounds cool.

Here are the films. Most of them, but not all, are themed around rock music. I’ll point out the features, then list the shorts.

Features:

Theater 1

Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal, dir. Rick Ernst. Ernst, a former producer on MTV shows like Headbangers Ball and 120 Minutes (I used to never miss 120 Minutes), presents this history of the most extreme version of heavy metal, with performances and interviews with Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and more.

Wasted Orient, dir. Kevin Fritz. A documentary about the Beijing punk band Joyside, who are doomed to obscurity since their form of music will probably never be officially sanctioned by the Chinese government. Fritz will be on-hand for a Q&A session after the film.

Theater 2

Flatland The Film: Special Edition, dir. Ladd Ehlinger Jr. An adaptation of the novel by Edwin Abbot, a peaceful land of 2-D characters, which are no more than simple shapes, is invaded by 3-D creatures and their only hope is a resourceful Square. Ehlinger will be on-hand for a Q&A session after the film.

We Like to Drink: We Like to Play Rock ‘n’ Roll, dir. Lexie Shabel. A documentary about the notorious Unband who used to open for such diverse acts such as Dio, Anthrax and Def Leppard. Not good match-ups. Michael Ruffino, the Unband’s bass player will be at the screening.